For years, I’d edit copy here and these road conundrums would come up. I’d go with newsroom wisdom over that map when it really got down to it, since I knew that map had been wrong before.

But what’s the ultimate authority on the name of a road?

There are lots of possibilities. We have a list of road names and their corresponding numbers that are used by the state DOT. Road names are etched on records at the Alamance County Register of Deeds office. There are the road signs themselves.

A few years ago, the advent of Google Maps gave me a new tool for road deciphering but also a new twist. Google Maps helps us find roads that have been built since 2002, but it also differs somewhat from the newsroom map on names of roads that both make note of.

Walk into the back door leading into the Times-News newsroom and you’ll be greeted by a map. A big one.

It’s a road map of Alamance County that’s about 4 feet high suspended from the ceiling. Reporters and photographers can often be seen peering at it as they decide how to get to a bad car crash or a photo assignment. It provides me a bit of a screen for some privacy from curious onlookers.

The map was made in 2002. Several roads and subdivisions have been added to the county’s landscape since. University Drive and its intersection with 40/85 are but a dream marked by a dotted line, a proposal etched in state DOT plans if not asphalt.

This thing is old. The only thing older is a state map hanging nearby that does not show Interstate 40 going any further west than Raleigh. Or maybe a big magnet for the Daily Times-News.

This county road map is also inaccurate.

Managing Editor Jay Ashley, the newsroom’s head road man, has made several corrections. They are written in black Sharpie marker right on the map itself.

Quakenbush Road in Snow Camp does not have a “c” in the middle. It is not Quackenbush Road.

Stoney Creek Church Road near the reservoir north of the city is not “Stony” Creek Church Road.

For years, I’d edit copy here and these road conundrums would come up. I’d go with newsroom wisdom over that map when it really got down to it, since I knew that map had been wrong before.

But what’s the ultimate authority on the name of a road?

There are lots of possibilities. We have a list of road names and their corresponding numbers that are used by the state DOT. Road names are etched on records at the Alamance County Register of Deeds office. There are the road signs themselves.

A few years ago, the advent of Google Maps gave me a new tool for road deciphering but also a new twist. Google Maps helps us find roads that have been built since 2002, but it also differs somewhat from the newsroom map on names of roads that both make note of.

What to believe: Google Maps or my newsroom map?

Google has given me another tool that has been invaluable — Street View. This is the street level look at certain roads that the company has painstakingly archived through the use of cars equipped with cameras on top.

Using Google Street View, I can sometimes see what street signs say (I have to get lucky — the signs have to be close enough to the road that the passing Googlemobile catches a legible photo). If it comes down to my newsroom map, Google Maps or what the road sign says — I’m going with the road sign.

These rambling thoughts on names of streets came to mind this week after the Graham City Council voted to clarify that Field Street is thusly named. It is not “Fields Street,” as some recent maps have noted. Assistant City Manager Frankie Maness went to the tax records as the official source (which may answer my earlier question).

It’s a small point to most, except the assigning desk editor of the local newspaper.

Here is one road in the county I can be sure I know how to spell.

City editor Brent Lancaster can be reached at blancaster@thetimesnews.com or 336-506-3040. Follow him at twitter.com/tnbrentl.